Argentina: Boot camp for a politically savvy pope

FILE - In this Dec. 12, 2008 file photo, Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez, left, shakes hands with Buenos Aires' archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Lujan, Argentina. Bergoglio, who chose the name of Francis, was chosen as the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church on March 13, 2013. Pope Francis has honed his leadership skills in one of the most difficult classrooms on the planet: Argentina, where politics has long been a blood sport practiced only by the brave. (AP Photo/DyN, File
— AP

FILE - In this Dec. 12, 2008 file photo, Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez, left, shakes hands with Buenos Aires' archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Lujan, Argentina. Bergoglio, who chose the name of Francis, was chosen as the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church on March 13, 2013. Pope Francis has honed his leadership skills in one of the most difficult classrooms on the planet: Argentina, where politics has long been a blood sport practiced only by the brave. (AP Photo/DyN, File
/ AP

Pope Francis waves as he arrives for a meeting with the media at the Paul VI hall, at the Vatican Saturday, March 16, 2013. Pope Francis met thousands of journalists and media workers coming from 81 countries at Paolo VI hall on Saturday. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)— AP

Pope Francis waves as he arrives for a meeting with the media at the Paul VI hall, at the Vatican Saturday, March 16, 2013. Pope Francis met thousands of journalists and media workers coming from 81 countries at Paolo VI hall on Saturday. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
/ AP

Pope Francis receives a gift, a glass to drink the traditional South America beverage "mate", during a meeting with the media at the Paul VI hall, at the Vatican Saturday, March 16, 2013. Pope Francis offered intimate insights Saturday into the moments after his papal election, telling an audience with the press that he was immediately inspired to take the name of St. Francis of Assisi because of his work for peace and the poor, and was embraced by another cardinal amid applause inside the conc— AP

Pope Francis receives a gift, a glass to drink the traditional South America beverage "mate", during a meeting with the media at the Paul VI hall, at the Vatican Saturday, March 16, 2013. Pope Francis offered intimate insights Saturday into the moments after his papal election, telling an audience with the press that he was immediately inspired to take the name of St. Francis of Assisi because of his work for peace and the poor, and was embraced by another cardinal amid applause inside the conc
/ AP

Pope Francis greets archbishop Claudio Maria Celli during a meeting with the media at the Paul VI hall, at the Vatican Saturday, March 16, 2013. Pope Francis offered intimate insights Saturday into the moments after his papal election, telling an audience with the press that he was immediately inspired to take the name of St. Francis of Assisi because of his work for peace and the poor, and was embraced by another cardinal amid applause inside the conclave. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)— AP

Pope Francis greets archbishop Claudio Maria Celli during a meeting with the media at the Paul VI hall, at the Vatican Saturday, March 16, 2013. Pope Francis offered intimate insights Saturday into the moments after his papal election, telling an audience with the press that he was immediately inspired to take the name of St. Francis of Assisi because of his work for peace and the poor, and was embraced by another cardinal amid applause inside the conclave. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
/ AP

Pope Francis walks past a Swiss guard as he arrives for a meeting with the media at the Pope VI hall, at the Vatican, Saturday, March 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)— AP

Pope Francis walks past a Swiss guard as he arrives for a meeting with the media at the Pope VI hall, at the Vatican, Saturday, March 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
/ AP

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina 
Pope Francis has honed his leadership skills in one of the most difficult classrooms on the planet: Argentina, where politics has long been a blood sport practiced only by the brave.

Rising through Argentina's Roman Catholic hierarchy in times of dictatorship, capitalist excess, economic crisis and populist fervor, Francis has sought to secure a place for his church in an increasingly modern, secular society.

It might be just the training a pope needs before taking on the problems of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics and helping them recover from scandals over sex abuse and feuding and corruption at the highest levels of the church's hierarchy.

"Buenos Aires is a microcosm of the world's problems. He's going to have to deal with political crises and we have political crises here. This is a scale model of the world's inequality," his former spokesman, Guillermo Marco, told The Associated Press. "But we also have wonderful people, we're passionate, we're prone to fighting .... Bergoglio is all that!"

With Argentina's justice system putting dictatorship-era officials on trial for human rights violations like never before, the Buenos Aires archbishop drew a line against blaming the church as a whole for the key support that Catholic leaders provided to the murderous 1976-1983 junta.

"The church was, is and will be persecuted," Jorge Mario Bergoglio said from the pulpit during a particularly tense phase in 2007, before a police chaplain was given a life sentence for junta-era tortures and killings. "The methods were and are the same: disinformation, defamation and calumny."

Behind the scenes, Bergoglio became a skilled operator, welcoming politicians from all sides into his office and offering his opinions on matters having more to do with state than church.

President Cristina Fernandez and her allies saw that as a threat, political analysts say, but Marco said Francis sees politics as his duty, and "never runs away from conflict."

When the country's economy collapsed in 2002, Bergoglio got fed up at the politicians pointing fingers while the jobless stormed supermarkets, desperate for food. He made headlines by writing that "Argentina looks ever more like a funeral procession where everyone wants to console the family but no one wants to carry the dead."

He also won wide acclaim for standing with the survivors and blaming political corruption for Argentina's mass tragedies, such as a nightclub fire that killed 194 people or a commuter train accident that killed 51. "We can't afford to be idiots, fools, toward those who sponsor the culture of death," he said.

Another pope with a personal touch, John Paul II, campaigned to bring down the Cold War's Iron Curtain. Today's challenges have more to do with poverty, inequality and corruption. Francis has seen it all.

"He wasn't living in a separate house protected by bodyguards, or riding in a car with tinted windows, aloof to reality. No. He lived that reality," Marco said. "If the subway was late, he was late. He took a bus like everyone else and heard the protests, because people would recognize him on the streets and would say, `Do Something!'"